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Senate inquiry to tackle superbugs

ASHLEY HALL: For many years, the medical profession has warned that the overuse of antibiotics is going to create a global health crisis. Now it's to be the subject of a senate inquiry.

An expert in infectious diseases says Australia missed the opportunity to deal with the problem more than a decade ago and now itís more urgent than ever.

Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: In 1999 an expert committee warned the Federal Government the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a public health issue of major concern. Greens Senator Richard Di Natale says most of that committee's recommendations have been ignored.

RICHARD DI NATALE: We've lost over a decade now in terms of our response. If we had have some of the measures that we know will work in place 10 years ago, we'd be in a much stronger position when it comes to antibiotics and superbugs.

SIMON LAUDER: Now, after lobbying by the Greens, a senate committee is about to launch an inquiry into the implementation of the 1999 recommendations.

Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Australian National University, Peter Collignon, was on the expert committee. Professor Collignon is not impressed with the progress that's been made, particularly when it comes to comprehensively monitoring antibiotic use and resistance.

PETER COLLIGNON: And there isn't any, you know, shining white knight like a whole lot of new drugs on the horizon. We need to do more and urgently to stop these superbugs getting into the country and spreading and we need to get it organised by government so that it actually happens.

SIMON LAUDER: Or else?

PETER COLLIGNON: Or else we'll have more and more people who will have untreatable infections and that means that if we go back to the 1920s and '30s, if you had golden staph in your blood for instance or even the pneumonia germ, you had an 80 or 90 per cent chance of being dead within 30 days and in that particular situation where there are no antibiotics, you had to survive with your own bodyís defences and you don't do as well as antibiotics and/or you had amputation or surgery to remove the infected material because there is no way of delivering a drug in there that worked.

SIMON LAUDER: So that's where we headed at the moment?

PETER COLLIGNON: Well, that is where we are heading and in fact that already happens around the world. We're just fortunate in Australia it is much, much less frequent here and we need to keep it that way.

PETER COLLIGNON: I think it's important that we test that there are not superbugs or drugs in the foods we eat.

SIMON LAUDER: He says most of the antibiotics used worldwide are used in food animals.

PETER COLLIGNON: What is lacking is the political will to do something about it which essentially means certain drugs should not be used in certain animals in large volumes instead of having a system that's opaque or no information being available.

SIMON LAUDER: As Australians travel overseas and return with exotic bugs in their stomachs, Senator Di Natale says it may even be time to reconsider existing medical practice.

RICHARD DI NATALE: If increasing numbers of people are carrying these superbugs and by doing a prostate biopsy we may in fact cause that bug to enter the bloodstream and make that person very unwell, then we need to actually determine whether we have to change the threshold for doing those sorts of invasive procedures.

They're the sort of things that the enquiry needs to look at because a world without antibiotics is a place we don't want to go to.

From the Archives

Around 500 Indigenous people fought in the First World War, and as many as 5,000 in the second. But many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. On Anzac Day, 2007, the first parade to commemorate their efforts and bravery was held in Sydney. Listen to our report from that day by Lindy Kerin.